SP MLA raises “Atal ji amar rahein” slogan

Abhishek Awasthi.

Bhadohi: On Wednesday, opposition Samajwadi Party MLA Zahid Beg attended the installation of a statue of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, raising eyebrows when he hailed the BJP veteran. Beg, dressed in the customary red cap of the Samajwadi Party (SP), chanted the phrase “Atalji amar rahein” beside Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak.When questioned by reporters about the “Ramcharitmanas” controversy, the SP MLA distanced himself from party leader Swami Prasad Maurya’s views on the epic. “I’m honoured to be able to attend the event. Atalji was often talking about bringing people together,” Beg was alluding to former Prime Minister.Beg, an MLA from Bhadohi City, later clarified that he attended the event as it was organised in his assembly segment and said his raising the slogan should not be given any political meaning.    He added that he had praised Vajpayee, the former prime minister and not the leader of any political party. “Vajpayeeji was a leader who connected with the hearts of the people and was also the one who united the country. He was not the leader of any party but the country’s prime minister,” he said.Stressing that the installation of Vajpayee’s statue in his assembly segment is a privilege, Beg said, “I am an MLA of the SP and have worked under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav first and now Akhilesh Yadav. “There is no question of my leaving the SP and attending an event organised for a former prime minister should not be viewed from this angle.”When Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) passed away, leaders of all parties, even Baba Ramdev, paid homage to him, he said. On his “Atal ji amar rahein” slogan, Beg said it was not just him, the entire nation considers Vajpayee ‘amar (immortal)’.Beg’s father was a Janata Dal MP in 1989 before switching over to the Samajwadi Party. The family has been associated with the party since then. On Maurya’s comment on the “Ramcharitmanas”, Beg said, “Hum isse sehmat nahi hai (I don’t agree with it).” Maurya, a general secretary in the SP, recently courted controversy after he alleged that certain verses in the “Ramcharitmanas” — a popular version of the “Ramayana” penned by Tulsidas — “insult” a large section of society on the basis of caste and demanded a ban on those passages.